The Escadrille Lafayette or Escadrille américaine was formed April 18, l9l6, as a volunteer unit (Escadrille n. 124) in the French Army. Capitaine Georges Thenault was the French commander of this squadron of American volunteers. On February 18, 1918, ceased as a unit of the French Army and merged into the U.S. Air Corps as the 103rd pursuit squadron.

Found in the personal effects of Capitaine George Thenault, the French commander of the Lafayette Escadrille, and donated to the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by his widow in 1962.